41.3 Oracle Business Intelligence Issues and Workarounds that Apply to Release 11.1.1.3

A number of issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence Release 11.1.1.3 were identified prior to the January 2011 revision of the Release Notes. To find out more about those issues and workarounds, see the Oracle Business Intelligence chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Release Notes for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) at:

The text in the originally published release note is incorrect. The correct text appears in this section.

If you want to use Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management as a data source for the Oracle BI Server, and you want to authenticate using a shared token rather than configuring shared credentials in the connection pool, you must first enable compatibility for shared tokens using the steps provided in this section. If you enable compatibility for shared tokens, do not select Shared logon in the connection pool. Note that the Oracle Business Intelligence user and the Enterprise Performance Management user must use the same identity store.

If you do not enable compatibility for shared tokens, and you also do not provide shared credentials in the connection pool, the Oracle BI Server will attempt to authenticate using the pass-through user credentials (in other words, the user name and password used to log on to Oracle Business Intelligence).

Before you begin, ensure that you have the database connection information available for the Oracle Business Intelligence database where you populated the BI Platform schemas using RCU. For example, ensure that you have the host name, port, SID, user name, and password for the database.

To enable CSS token generation for single sign-on from the Oracle BI Server to Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data sources:

In the Oracle Business Intelligence environment, open setDomainEnv.sh (or setDomainEnv.bat on Windows) for editing. You can find this file at:

Edit epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows) to provide required values for ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_INSTANCE, and JAVA_HOME as appropriate for your environment.

On Linux systems, make epm_components_creation.sh executable using the following command:

chmod +x epm_components_creation.sh

Run the executable epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows), and provide the database host name, port, SID, user name, and password as command-line arguments. For example:

To validate that the data was successfully populated in the EPM Registry, execute epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows) and provide "validate" as a command-line argument. For example:

epm_components_creation.sh validate

The following output is displayed:

Following required properties are available for SHARED_SERVICES_PRODUCT in EPM Registry:-
mode=FUSIONAPPS
COMPATIBILITY=11120-

Restart the BI domain, including the Administration Server and Managed Servers.

The XDK used by Oracle BI Publisher requires the JVM of the Oracle WebLogic Server to run in en-US locale. Otherwise, functions (such as sum) generate values that cannot be formatted with its number format functions.

To work around this problem, in the script startWebLogic.cmd add the following line to set the required options:

You can download and apply patch 11810367 to hide selected warnings from the Consistency Check Manager. After applying the patch, the following warnings are hidden by default: 39009, 39054, 39055, 39057, and 39059. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

To make these warnings visible again in the Consistency Check Manager, follow these steps:

Click the Options button in the Consistency Check Manager to open the Consistency Check Warnings dialog.

Deselect the warnings that you want the Consistency Check Manager to display.

Click OK.

You can also add additional warnings to the exclusion list in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog. To do this:

Go to the following directory:

ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obisn

In that directory, create a text file called warn_off.ini. This file must be in ASCII format.

Populate the file with contents similar to the following, listing the warning numbers that you want to add to the exclusion list in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog:

[CCOptions]
CC_WARNINGS_LIST = 39024,39077

Note the following:

All excluded warnings must be on one line and can be separated by a comma, a semicolon, or a space.

You cannot exclude errors. You can only exclude warnings from the Consistency Check Manager.

If you add warning numbers from the default exclusion list (39009, 39054, 39055, 39057, and 39059), they are ignored.

Save and close the file.

Close and then re-open the Consistency Check Manager. The new warnings appear in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog and are selected by default, meaning that those warnings will be excluded from consistency checks.

41.3.1.4 Clarification of CaseInsensitiveMode Element

Appendix E in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 provides an example of the section of the instanceconfig.xml file in which you can include the CaseInsensitiveMode element. The correct parent element of QueryManager is missing for CaseInsensitiveMode. The proper syntax is as follows:

Section 22.3.2, "Specifying Defaults for Styles and Skins" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 contains sample code from the instanceconfig.xml file for working with the DefaultStyle and DefaultSkin elements. The parent element for these elements should be UI, so the sample code should read as follows:

41.3.1.6 Updates of Information About the Catalog

The following sections provide information for inclusion in Chapter 18, "Configuring and Managing the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3:

Each object in the catalog is stored in its own file. For example, an analysis called Analysis 1 is stored in a file named Analysis1. The object name that is visible to users, such as Analysis 1, is referred to as the logical object name.

The following list provides guidelines for object names:

No restrictions exist on which characters are allowed in the logical name of an object in the catalog, as long as the characters are valid Unicode characters. The following are valid logical names:

Hello World
Profit / Loss
% Sales * $ Cost ~~ $ "Expense"?

The length of the logical object name must not exceed 256 Unicode characters.

Use care when building a catalog path. It is very common to see code that assumes the forward slash (/) is always a path separator. Always verify your path code with an object name such as "Profit / Loss".

When you pass a catalog search filter using SOAP, you must escape the following characters:

The catalog is designed to scale to thousands of concurrent users. To achieve this, the catalog adheres to the following guidelines:

The average user typically only reads from the catalog and rarely, if ever, writes to it. In Release 11g, each user is constantly and automatically updating his or her Most Recently Used file, but each user's "read" operations still far outweigh the user's "writes" operations. Therefore, the read-to-write ratio is typically at least 100 to 1.

While a locking mechanism guarantees that only one user can write to an object at a time, it is rare for multiple users to attempt to write simultaneously to the same object. A feature called "lazy locking" allows users to continue reading an object even when another user is updating that object.

Modern file systems cache "small" files directly inside the directory record, such that reading any information on a directory simultaneously loads all small files directly into the operating system's memory cache. Therefore, it is good practice to keep files in the catalog "small," especially the frequently "read" .atr metadata files. When these metadata files remain small, then all the .atr files in a directory are loaded into memory with one physical hard disk read. Every file that exceeds the "small" threshold adds another physical hard disk read, which can cause a 100% degradation for each large file. In other words, use care when considering storing arbitrary "Properties" in .atr files.

Reading an object's .atr metadata file using NFS is far slower than reading it directly from a local disk. For this reason, Presentation Services additionally caches all .atr files internally. This cache can become briefly "stale" when another node in the cluster writes data to the file that is newer than the data that is cached by the current node. Therefore, all nodes are refreshed as per the MaxAgeMinutes element in the instanceconfig.xml file, whose default for a cluster is 5 minutes. This default setting commonly achieves the best trade-off between the possibility of stale data and the known performance impact. (The default for an environment without clusters is 60 minutes.)

To allow heterogeneous nodes in a cluster, the catalog adheres to the following guidelines:

The maximum length for the name of an object on disk is 256 bytes, which is 64 Unicode characters. The logical name is restricted to 256 Unicode characters. To adhere to this restriction, logical names greater than 32 characters are hashed.

The maximum length for the name of a path on disk is 32KB, which is 8000 Unicode characters. The logical path is restricted to 16000 Unicode characters.

All path names on disk are all lowercase. The logical path name allows mixed case, but is still case-insensitive.

Certain characters are not allowed for path names on disk, while the logical path name allows all characters. For example, Windows systems disallow certain characters such as the colon (:), so those characters are mapped using standard HTML escape sequences. For example, the period character (.) becomes "%2e".

Certain file names are not allowed on disk, while the logical object name has no restrictions. For example, Windows systems disallow certain file names such as COM, so those names are mapped using standard HTML escape sequences. For example, "com" becomes "co%6d".

Keep the following points in mind when handling catalog files on various platforms:

For UNIX Platforms: UNIX kernels must commonly be configured to allow more than 4000 subdirectories per directory. See Chapter 18 for information on the HashUserHomeDirectories element.

For Windows Platforms:

When users want to navigate catalog files using a tool such as Microsoft Windows Explorer, then they want the catalog structure based on a short path name such as c:/obi/demo, rather than the long default path name. Note that such navigation is not recommended.

FAT is not supported, and NTFS is required.

Performance on Windows platforms degrades noticeably when more than 8000 files exist in a single directory. Because each catalog object has two files (the data file and the .atr metadata file), it is strongly recommended that you not store more than 4000 catalog objects in a single directory. See Chapter 18 for information on the HashUserHomeDirectories element.

Windows Explorer does not handle long path names properly, and it is recommended to not Windows Explorer to navigate the internal structure of the catalog. While the file system can handle path names as long as 32KB and Presentation Services is not negatively affected, you cannot use Windows Explorer with any path name that is longer than approximately 2KB.

Because a single Unicode character can require as many as 4 bytes, you might be unable to use Windows Explorer with path names of only 500 Unicode characters. This limitation does not affect Presentation Services. Because of this limitation, place the catalog in a top-level directory, such as c:\mycatalog\sales.

Various third-party FTP programs have issues handling '%' escape sequences, which often results in a renamed file that is doubly escaped. For example, a file that is named sa%2epaint (whose logical name is SA.Paint) is incorrectly renamed to sa%252epaint (whose logical name is SA%2ePaint).

Avoid using an FTP program directly against a catalog. Instead, download and use the 7-Zip utility to compress the catalog files, then use an FTP program to transfer the resulting compressed file.

41.3.1.6.6 Validating the Catalog (doc erratum for Release 11.1.1.3)

Over time, inconsistencies can develop in the catalog as links are broken, users are deleted, or NFS file system issues are encountered. These inconsistencies can eventually lead to incorrect behavior, such as the inability to edit an agent's recipient list. You can periodically take the production system offline and validate the catalog, to be informed of and to take corrective action on inconsistencies.

41.3.1.6.7 Performing a Basic Validation of the Catalog (doc erratum for Release 11.1.1.3)

Use the following procedure to perform a basic validation of the catalog.

Start Presentation Services to run the validation according to the values that you specified in the instanceconfig.xml file.

Stop Presentation Services.

Create a backup copy of the instanceconfig.xml file in which you added the validation elements, renaming the file similar to instanceconfig_validate.xml. In this way, you have a version of the file to use as a starting point for subsequent validations.

Restore the backup version of the instanceconfig.xml that you created earlier to use as the current version.

Start Presentation Services.

41.3.1.6.8 Specifying the Elements for Validating the Catalog (doc erratum for Release 11.1.1.3)

As part of the process of validating the catalog, you include elements in the instanceconfig.xml file that run the validation when you restart Presentation Services. The following procedure describes how to edit the instanceconfig.xml file to include these elements.

To specify the element for validating the catalog:

Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing.

Locate the Catalog section in which you must add the elements that are described in Table 41-1.

Include the elements and their ancestor element as appropriate, as shown in the following example. In this example, the validation runs when Presentation Services starts. Inconsistent accounts (for example, deleted users), links, and objects are removed. Inconsistent users' home directory names are logged but directories are not removed.

OnStartupAndExit — Performs the validation when Presentation Services both starts and stops. This value allows re-running of the validation, performing as many cycles of Report and Clean until the catalog is as clean as appropriate.

If this value is not None, then all privileges and each object's ACLs in the entire catalog are cleaned of dead accounts, regardless of the settings of the other Validate-related elements.

None

ValidateAccounts

Verifies that all information about users, roles, and groups in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateHomes

Verifies that all information about home directories in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateItems

Verifies that all information about objects in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateLinks

Verifies that all information about links in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

The elements have the values that are described in the following list:

None — Specifies that no validation is performed.

Report — Specifies that details about each inconsistent object are written to the sawlog.log file.

Clean — Specifies that details about each inconsistent object are written to the sawlog.log file and that each object is removed from the catalog.

Section 18.8.2.1 "XML File Format for Searching for and Replacing Text Strings" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 must be replaced with the following text.

In the search and replace XML file, you use an action element to identify each text string to search for and replace. The action elements are contained in a commands element.

The action element has the following attributes:

command — Specifies the text to replace. The valid value is:

textReplace — Replaces all the text that matches in an XML file, such as a column name.

oldValue — Specifies the text string to search for.

When you specify this attribute for the textReplace command for the search and replace XML file, you must use the full Java regex syntax, which is not like a normal string. To replace a string, you must do the following:

Chapter 19, "Configuring and Managing Analyses and Dashboards" of the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 includes Section 19.7.2.6, "Including Links with Analyses on Dashboards." This section is not applicable and must be removed from the guide.

41.3.1.8 Issues with WebLogic LDAP User Passwords

If you experience issues with WebLogic LDAP user passwords that contain non-ascii characters, please contact Oracle Support and reference bug 9929485 for details of a patch.

41.3.1.9 Configuring the GUID Attribute in the Identity Store

If you configure an alternative authentication provider such as Oracle Application Server or Active Directory, and you change the GUID attribute from its default value, then you must ensure that the value that you use in the Identity Store matches the changed value that you are using in the alternative authentication provider.

For example, if you are using Oracle Internet Directory and have changed the default value of the GUID attribute from orclguid to newvalue, you must set the value to newvalue in both the Identity Store and the authentication provider.

To configure the GUID attribute in the Identity Store:

In Fusion Middleware Control, navigate to \Weblogic domain\bifoundation_domain in the navigation pane.

41.3.2 Other Oracle Business Intelligence Issues and Workarounds that also Apply to Release 11.1.1.3

A number of issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence Release 11.1.1.3 were identified prior to the January 2011 revision of the Release Notes. To find out more about those issues and workarounds, see the Oracle Business Intelligence chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Release Notes for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) at:

If you currently use Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics 10g and want to continue to do so, then do not install or upgrade to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g, Release 11.1.1.5.

41.4.2 Issue with JAR File Size When Moving from a Test to a Production Environment

This issue is applicable when moving from a test environment to a production environment. The Oracle Business Intelligence installation creates a JAR file of approximately 5 GB. JDK version 6 (or earlier) has a file size limit of 4 GB. Therefore, when you un-jar the file using the AS command pasteBinary, a crash occurs.

The workaround is to force either the pasteBinary command to use JRockit, which does not have a file size limit, or use JDK version 7. For instructions, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.

41.4.3 IBM LDAP Based Authentication is Not Supported on Linux x86-64 and Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit)

IBM LDAP based authentication is not supported for Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.3.0 release on Linux x86-64 and Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit).

To work around this issue, users must use Oracle WebLogic based authentication.

Oracle Business Intelligence Server fails to start if the connect string used for the connection pool is missing in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file.

To work around this issue, ensure that a valid connect string is present in the tnsnames.ora file.

41.4.5 Adobe Flash Player Version 10.1 or Later Required to View Graphs and Scorecards

The Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser-based application runtime environment and is required for rendering graphs and scorecard objects in a browser.

Users must have Adobe Flash Player version 10.1 or later installed on their browsers to correctly view all graphs and scorecards that are generated by Oracle BI EE. Users can obtain information about the version of the Adobe Flash Player that is running on their browser by going to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.

41.4.9 Siteminder Not Supported with Full-Text Catalog Search

The full-text catalog search feature of Oracle BI EE is not supported with Windows Native Authentication. If you use this authentication and if you configure the full-text catalog search with the Active Directory plug-in and the Oracle Fusion data source, then the full-text catalog search returns no search results.

You can use the full-text catalog search feature to locate objects in the catalog. If you search for BI Publisher reports by report column names, then you might obtain no results. This issue can arise when you use Secure Enterprise Search Version 11.1.2.2.0.

To work around this issue, add the following line to the ORACLE_HOME/search/data/config/crawler.dat file:

This visibility issue applies only to BI content that would be hidden offscreen until scrolling over to see it. If the user language has been set to Arabic or Hebrew, then you cannot drag or scroll to view further BI content in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application on your iPhone or iPad.

When using the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile client with a bi-directional language like Hebrew or Arabic, the client shell does not show the layout correctly.

41.4.14 Hebrew Fonts May Display in the Wrong Direction on Windows

On Windows, if you select the Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages (including Thai) option on the Languages tab of the Regional and Language Options dialog, Hebrew fonts display in the wrong direction, that is left to right rather than right to left.

The workaround is to deselect the Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages (including Thai) option as follows:

In the Control Panel, click the Regional & Language Options button to display the Regional and Language Options dialog.

41.4.15 Problems Installing in Thai and Turkish Locales

Turkish and Thai users are recommended to install and run Oracle Business Intelligence using the English locale. Due to instability that might be encountered, the Turkish and Thai locales are not supported on the server side. Oracle Business Intelligence does support Turkish and Thai locales as clients.

41.4.16 Graph Subtypes Are Not Refreshed in BI Composer

When you select a non-default graph subtype in the BI Composer Wizard: Create Analysis: Edit Graph panel and later change the view to a different graph type in the BI Composer Wizard: Create Analysis: Select Views panel, the graph subtype does not get refreshed.

The workaround is to select the first option in the Subtype box in the BI Composer Wizard: Create Analysis: Edit Graph panel. (The first option is the default subtype for the new graph type.)

41.4.17 Oracle BI Mobile: Mobile Device Accessibility Features May Not Work With Oracle BI Mobile Application

Apple iPhone and iPad accessibility features such as VoiceOver and Mono Audio might not work or might work only partially in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application. There is no workaround for this issue.

Briefing books content is not supported in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application in Release 11.1.1.5.0.

Users are unable to open a briefing book or view any content from a briefing book on the Oracle BI Mobile application. However, briefing books' titles might appear in the mobile application in a user's catalog or in a list of favorites.

Oracle BI Presentation Services supports a set of characters for catalog folder names that BI Publisher does not support. Characters not supported by BI Publisher are:

~, !, #, $, %, ^, &, *, +, `, |, :, ", \\, <, >, ?, ,, /

Folders named with these characters may exhibit unexpected behavior if you log in directly to BI Publisher; for example, the folder may not be visible, the folder may not expand properly, or the name may appear garbled.

To work around this issue, do not use these characters in folder names.

41.5 Oracle Business Intelligence Installation Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to installing Oracle Business Intelligence. It includes the following topics:

41.5.1 Error When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Against a SQL Server Database

If you are using an MS SQL Server database when installing Oracle Business Intelligence, then the mds-owsm and bip_datasource JDBC data sources has an invalid test table. This stops the WebLogic Server automatic connection testing from functioning. For example, if the database stops, WebLogic Server does not recognize a hanging or invalid connection.

The workaround is to edit the Test Table Name parameter to allow a SQL string to be executed to test the connection. To do so, set the parameter in the WebLogic Server Administration Console to SQL select 1.

41.5.2 Scale-Out Scenarios Are Not Supported on OS with Different Patch Levels

Scale-out scenarios of the BI domain are not supported on computers that have the same operating system but different patch levels. All computers must have the same operating system patch level.

41.5.3 Antivirus Software May Block the Installation in a Windows Environment

If you are deploying to a mapped network drive on a computer running a supported Windows operating system, then ensure that the antivirus software is not set to block the remote creation of autorun.inf files.

If you attempt to install on a Windows system that is using DHCP, does not have a primary DNS suffix, and does not have a loopback adapter configured, then the Oracle Business Intelligence installer stops at the screen that prompts for the Administrator user details. This is displayed as a red cross in the tree on the left-hand side of the installer. This issue is caused by the installer not being able to resolve the IP address to a host name.

The workaround is to configure a loopback adapter or primary DNS suffix.

41.5.5 Issues When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows 2008

When you install Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows 2008, you may experience issues such as OPMN failing to start processes.

The workaround is to run the installation and configuration steps with the Run as Administrator option.

Attempting to install Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive might fail, resulting in the following error message:

Installation Failed. Prepare Session failed You may not have enough space on your drive for a successful install. Do you still want to continue?

To avoid this issue when installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive, start the Oracle Business Intelligence installer from the command line using the ignoreDiskWarning option. For example, on Linux, use the following command:

./runInstaller -ignoreDiskWarning

41.5.7 Configuring DB2 to Support Multibyte Data

When installed with an IBM DB2 database, the Oracle Business Intelligence installer configures the system with an ODBC 2.0 driver. In such systems, issues will occur if multibyte data is used. To avoid this issue, use Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure the Oracle Business Intelligence system to use the native DB2 CLI driver instead.

To configure Oracle Business Intelligence to use DB2 CLI driver with IBM DB2:

Install the DB2 client software on the machines where Oracle Business Intelligence resides, and create data source to your scheduler db.

After you install Oracle Business Intelligence, log into the system through Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Navigate to the Scheduler tab for the Oracle Business Intelligence server.

When installed with a Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 database, the Oracle Business Intelligence installer configures Oracle BI Scheduler with a SQL Server 2005/2008 driver. If multibyte data is used, scheduled jobs might fail. To avoid this issue, use Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure the Oracle Business Intelligence system to use a SQL Server 7.0/2000 driver instead.

After you install Oracle Business Intelligence, log into the system through Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Navigate to the Scheduler tab for the Oracle Business Intelligence server.

Click Lock and Edit Configuration.

Click the Database drop-down list and select SQL Server 7.0/2000.

Click Apply.

41.5.9 Job Manager Does Not Start Due to Insufficient Permissions on Windows Operating Systems

If certain permission settings are insufficient, then Job Manager does not open when you attempt to start it. You can resolve this issue by changing the permission settings on the bifoundation folder. This folder can be found in the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client installation directory.

To resolve this issue:

In Windows Explorer, access the bifoundation folder, found in the directory where you installed Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client. Typically, you can find this folder in the following directory:

This error occurs when Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN) components are started on both the cluster nodes of Oracle Essbase cluster environment, and the Essbase component that is stopped on the active cluster node1 tries to fail over to cluster node2 or back to cluster node1.

At this time, OPMN spawns Oracle Essbase and passes two command line arguments as ports. They are as follows:

Its main listening port (1423 - as configured in opmn.xml).

A ping port, where OPMN keeps pinging Essbase.

For the second command line argument, OPMN does a port scan to find a free port from a dynamic range specified in opmn.xml file from the following attribute:

<port id="essbase-port-range" range="9500-9999"/>

The port scan reports port 9501 as a free port. This result is incorrect, as OPMN is already listening on port 9501. Thus, when OPMN sends the startup arguments to Essbase with a ping port of 9501, Essbase fails to start and shuts down.

The Oracle Business Intelligence installation fails on UNIX if the locale en_US.UTF-8 does not exist on the installation computer. To avoid this issue, make sure that the locale en_US.UTF-8 exists on the installation computer before you install Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.6 Oracle Business Intelligence Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topics:

41.6.1.1 Conditional Formatting Might Not Work After Upgrading from Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g to Release 11g

If an attribute column's Value Suppression setting (in the Column Format tab of the Column Properties dialog) is not set to Repeat, then the measure is aggregated to the grain as defined by the position of the column with the format defined. This might cause a change in the conditional formatting after upgrading from Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g to Release 11g. If the Value Suppression setting is set to Repeat, then the measure column that the conditional format is based on always uses the detail grain of the table view, in which case the conditional formatting works as expected.

41.6.2 Security-related Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to security when upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topics:

41.6.2.1 Warnings Might Be Reported When Upgrading an RPD with Non-English User or Group Names

When upgrading a repository with non-English user or group names, warnings might be reported in the log file, such as "Group name ??? isn't valid in WLS/LDAP : not migrating this group" or "User name ??? isn't valid in WLS/LDAP : not migrating this user" (where ??? is garbled text).

41.6.2.2 Users or Groups With Names Containing Invalid Characters Are Not Upgraded

When upgrading a repository, users or groups with names that contain the following invalid characters are not upgraded:

,

+

=

"

\

<

>

;

The workaround is to manually create the users or groups after upgrade is complete, with new names that do not contain the invalid characters. Note that the new names must not contain invalid characters under any circumstances. Failure to follow this instruction requires you to re-install Oracle Business Intelligence.

The repository upgrade process from Oracle Business Intelligence 10g to Oracle Business Intelligence 11g fails if the 10g Administrator user ID or password contains any non-native characters, and the operating system is Windows or Non-UTF8 Linux. For example, "Administrator/bi10g-éíô" fails to upgrade. The upgrade utility might run to completion, but with error messages, and users cannot log on if you try to run the system using the upgraded repository. You must change the Administrator user ID, password, or both the user ID and password to one that uses only native characters before running the repository upgrade command line utility or Upgrade Assistant wizard.

41.7.1 Prerequisites for Software Only Installation on 64-Bit Platforms

Prior to Oracle Business Intelligence software only installation, you must install the latest Oracle WebLogic Server wls1033_generic.jar in MW_Home with 64-bit JDK. Then install Oracle Business Intelligence in the same MW_Home.

Different types of installation options available for Oracle Business Intelligence are as follows:

Simple Install

This installs 32-bit JVM and 32-bit Oracle WebLogic Server. Oracle Business Intelligence Server is a 64-bit system on 64-bit platforms. Simple Install is supported on the following 64-bit Platforms only:

Linux x86-64

Windows x86-64

However, for production the recommended installation type is software only install with 64-bit Oracle WebLogic Server and 64-bit JDK.

Software Only Install

This installs software binary files in an Oracle home for later configuration as part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware deployment process. This installation type is required if you want to install Oracle Business Intelligence with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system.

Recommended installation steps for 64-bit platforms are as follows:

Install 64-bit Oracle WebLogic Server with 64-bit JDK.

Choose Oracle Business Intelligence Software Only Install option.

Once software only install process is complete, select Configure.

Enterprise Install

This installation type is not supported when installing with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system. Instead, select the Software Only Install type option.

For details, refer to Section 4.4.4, "Software Only Install" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.7.3 Considerations and Limitations of Enterprise Install Type for Scaling Out Existing Installations

To scale out an existing installation with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system, do not select the Enterprise Install type option. Select the Software Only Install type instead.

For details, refer to Section 4.4.4, "Software Only Install" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.8 Oracle Business Intelligence Analyses and Dashboards Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence analyses and dashboards. It includes the following topics:

41.8.1.1 Existing Dashboard Prompts Based on Columns Renamed in the Business Model Do Not Work

If a column is renamed in the Business Model, then existing dashboard prompts based on that column do not work with newly created analyses.

The workaround is to use Catalog Manager to rename the column in the catalog.

41.8.1.2 Gauge Views May Be Cut Off and Not Visible Under Certain Conditions

Under certain conditions, if the size of the canvas assigned to a gauge view is very small, and the legend is set to display on the left, then some of the gauges in the gauge view may be cut off and not visible.

The workaround is to edit the gauge view and change the Legend position to Right, Top, or Bottom. Alternatively, you can increase the size of the gauge view canvas so that all gauges display.

41.8.1.3 Numerical Units on a Dashboard Prompt Slider Might Not Be Translated Correctly

The numerical units (such as million or billion) that are displayed on a dashboard prompt slider might not be translated correctly.

The workaround is to modify the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file as follows:

Open the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file for editing. You can find the file here:

ORACLE_INSTANCE\bifoundation\web\msgdb\l_XX\messages\uicmsgs

Ensure that each entry for a numerical unit (such as tag name kmsgSliderBillion, kmsgSliderMillion, or kmsgSliderDecillion) is translated correctly.

Restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components. For information on how to restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

41.8.1.4 After Printing a Dashboard Page Using the Safari Browser on Windows, the Page No Longer Responds to Certain Left Clicks

After you print a dashboard page in PDF or HTML format using the Safari browser on Windows, the dashboard page no longer responds to certain left clicks, for example, a left click to print again or to change tabs.

The workaround is to exit and reopen the dashboard page. Alternatively, press and hold down the Ctrl key and then left-click.

41.8.1.5 Scorecard Diagrams on Dashboard Pages May Print as Tables

When you print a dashboard page that contains multiple scorecard diagrams (for example a strategy tree, strategy map, custom view, and cause & effect map) in PDF or HTML format, some of the diagrams might print as tables rather than diagrams.

The workaround is to scroll down the page and wait until all the diagrams have fully rendered before printing.

41.8.1.6 Some Total Rows in Table View Display Incorrect Totals for Level-Based Measures

In some cases, total rows added to the table view of a report display incorrect totals for level-based measures. When the dimension level of the total is at or below the level pinned in the logical column's levels tab for that dimension, the total row should show the pinned (level-based) value. In other words, the detail rows and the total row should all show the same value. However, the table view in these cases incorrectly shows a sum of the detail rows in the total row.

To work around this issue, use a hierarchical column to display the dimension, when possible.

41.8.1.7 Using Maps with Column Selectors

If you want to use a column selector view with map views, then ensure that you add all map views to the analysis before you add the column selector view.

41.8.1.8 Support for Rendering Small Form-Factor Graphs

This release includes support for rendering small form-factor graphs, for example, graphs that are 75 pixels X 25 pixels or 68 pixels X 18 pixels. Small form-factor graphs are also referred to as micrographs.

Analyses whose paths contain Latin Supplement characters fail to open on dashboard pages when the locale is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, or Arabic and you are using Internet Explorer 7 as the Web browser.

The workaround is to append &charset=utf-8 to the URL.

41.8.2 Actions Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to actions. It includes the following topic:

41.8.2.1 EJBs in Action Framework Must Be Deployed to the WebLogic Managed Server

A limitation currently exists in the Action Framework functionality when creating actions to invoke Java methods in EJBs. Only EJBs deployed within the same J2EE container as the Action Framework services (by default the WebLogic Managed Server) are available to the Action Framework.

The workaround is to invoke a target EJB. To do so, implement one of the following methods:

Deploy the target EJB to the WebLogic Managed Server in the BI domain (adhering to any license restrictions for WebLogic Server).

Deploy a gateway EJB/Web service on the WebLogic Managed Server specifically to invoke the remote EJB.

Expose the remote EJB as a Web service.

Deploy a gateway Web service on the remote location to invoke the EJB.

41.8.3 Scorecards and KPI Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to scorecards and KPIs. It includes the following topics:

41.8.3.1 No Results Returned When Searching in the Related Documents of Scorecards or Scorecard Components

You can use the full-text catalog search functionality to search in most catalog objects and related documents. Currently, the full-text catalog search functionality searches in scorecards themselves and in the names of related documents, but it does not search in the content of related documents for scorecards.

41.8.3.2 Item Stale Error When Editing a Shared Scorecard in Parallel

When using a shared Oracle BI Presentation Catalog and a scaled-out configuration of Oracle BI Presentation Services, users might see "Item Stale : <scorecard path>" errors, when they edit a shared scorecard in parallel.

The workaround to prevent this error is to turn off the Oracle BI Presentation Services Catalog Attribute Cache. To do so, set the following in the instanceconfig.xml file:

If you are using Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Virtual Directory, then agent deliveries fail.

The workaround is to apply the Oracle Virtual Directory Patch Number 9904956 - GUID Returned for AD User Cannot Be Used in Search Filter.

41.8.4.2 Agent Incorrectly Delivers Content to Active Delivery Profile When Only the Home Page and Dashboard Option Is Selected

When you specify that an agent is to deliver content only to the Home page and dashboard pages by selecting the Home Page and Dashboard option and deselecting the Devices option in the Destination tab of the Agent editor, there is a known issue where the agent delivers content to the active delivery profile even though the Devices option is deselected.

The workaround is to set the priority of the agent so that it does not match an existing delivery profile.

41.8.5 Microsoft Office Integration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the integration between Oracle Business Intelligence and Microsoft Office. It includes the following topics:

If you use Microsoft Office 2007 with Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office, then ensure that Office 2007 SP1 at minimum is installed. If you do not, you might encounter file interchangeability issues between Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 2003.

For more detailed information on versions, see the certification document available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

41.8.5.2 Server Connections Are Not Automatically Shared by Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint on the same computer share Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office connections. If you create a connection in Excel, then that connection is also available in PowerPoint. However, if you create an Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office connection in Excel while PowerPoint is open, then the connection is not displayed in PowerPoint, and vice versa.

The workaround to create a connection to be shared between Excel and PowerPoint is to ensure that the other Microsoft Office application is closed. Alternatively, you can close both Excel and PowerPoint, and reopen them as needed in order to see connections available in both Excel and PowerPoint.

For more information on installing Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office, see Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

41.8.5.4 Install a Language Pack for Non-English Languages

To use the Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office for a non-English language, you must install the appropriate language pack for Microsoft Office and set the regional language settings using the Control Panel. Go to the following URL to download and install the appropriate language pack:

41.8.5.5 Errors in the Online Help for Oracle BI Add-In for Microsoft Office

The following errors are in the online help for Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office:

In the "Creating a Connection to the Oracle BI Office Server" topic, in Step 1, "From the ribbon, select New" is incorrect. The correct instruction for Step 1 is "From the Ribbon, select Preferences. From Preferences, select the New tab." (This applies to Excel and PowerPoint.)

In the "Changing the Default Style Template" topic, in Step 1, the location given for the default template is valid only for Windows 32-bit installations. In Windows 64-bit installations, the default location is <BI Office installation directory>\ BIOfficeExcel|Template. (This applies to Excel.)

The "Setting Log Levels" topic should state that users must have proper access permission to the log file location. (This applies to Excel and PowerPoint.)

In Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Excel, you cannot refresh table views or pivot table views with double columns in the page edge. To work around this issue, ensure that double columns are not in the page edge (also called table prompt in table views and the pivot prompt in pivot table views).

41.8.5.7 Double Column Cascading Results in Incorrect Display Values

If double columns are used in cascaded prompts for both columns, then you might see code being displayed instead of the correct display values.

41.8.5.8 Intermittent Timeout Errors

If the BI Office Server is configured to connect to Presentation Services through Oracle HTTP Server (OHS), then you might see intermittent error messages that are caused by the timeout of a request. To work around this issue, increase the Keepalive timeout value for OHS to 15 seconds or more.

41.8.5.9 Lack of Support for Vary Color By Target Area

If you use the Vary Color By target area for graph views when creating analyses in Oracle BI EE, then you might find that the results are displayed incorrectly in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.

41.9.1.1 JDBC Driver Throws Unsupported Function for setBigDecimal

Data models that include a link between a data set of SQL query type against an Oracle database and a data set of SQL query type against the BI Server based on a numeric database column (used to create a parent-child hierarchical XML data structure with the SQL query against the Oracle database as the parent data set) fail to execute and return the following error: "Java.sql.SQLException: unsupported function at oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcPreparedStatement.setBigDecimal."

41.9.1.2 Searching the Catalog from the Oracle BI Publisher User Interface Does Not Work When BI Publisher Is Integrated with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition

When Oracle BI Publisher is installed in integrated mode with Oracle BI EE, searching the catalog from the BI Publisher user interface (that is, the URL is of the form "http://<host>:<port>/xmlpserver/...") does not work and the following message is returned:

Result Not found
Your search - <search criteria> - did not match any documents.

The workaround is to search the catalog from the Oracle BI EE user interface (that is, the URL is of the form "http://<host>:<port>/analytics/...").

41.9.1.3 Data Source List in BI Publisher Administration Page Includes Data Sources That Are Not Supported

When configuring a JDBC data source connection or an OLAP connection, the list provided in the BI Publisher Add Data Source page may include data sources that are not supported in this release. For the most current list of supported data sources, refer to the "System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 11gR1." The system requirements document is available from this link:

It is listed with the documents grouped under the Product Area "Additional Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.x) Certifications."

41.9.1.4 Menu Items Do Not Display When Using Internet Explorer 7 with a Bidirectional Language Preference

If you are using Internet Explorer 7 as the Web browser and you have selected a bidirectional language for your user interface preference (such as Arabic or Hebrew), then the menu options from the global header do not display.

To work around this problem, use Internet Explorer 8 or another supported Web browser.

When you create an OLAP data source connection to a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services data source in the BI Publisher Administration interface, the data source is not saved after you click the Apply button, even though the connection test succeeds.

To work around this issue, select "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services" as the OLAP Type from the list. Enter the same connection information and click Apply.

41.9.1.6 Issues with Viewing Some Report Formats on Apple iPad

The Apple iPad does not provide a default viewer for the following output formats:

MHTML (impacts Excel and PowerPoint)

RTF

The viewer provided for PowerPoint 2007 might distort the layout of characters.

Note that these issues are limitations of the provided iPad file readers and cannot be resolved by Oracle.

41.9.1.7 BI Publisher Objects Exhibit Unexpected Behavior When Located Inside a Folder Named with a Single Quote Character

In the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, if a folder name contains the single quote character (') BI Publisher reports that reside in that folder do not run and data models might throw unexpected errors. The behavior varies depending on the Web browser.

To work around this issue, do not include single quotes in the names of folders that contain BI Publisher objects.

41.9.1.8 Components Folder Missing from SampleApp Lite Web Catalog

Version 11.1.1.5 of the SampleApp Lite Web catalog is missing the Components folder. As a result, shared boilerplates are unavailable when user creates a new BI Publisher type layout for a BI Publisher report. To work around this issue:

Log in with administrator credentials and navigate to the BI Publisher Administration > Server Configuration page.

Under the Catalog region, ensure that the BI Publisher Repository field points to the default path:

Navigate to the Catalog page and verify that the Components folder is present under Shared Folders.

Note that this also installs additional BI Publisher sample reports included in the Samples folder. Many of these reports require that the Demo JDBC connection to the OE sample schema, included in Oracle Database, is configured.

In Release 11.1.1.5, the local policy attachments were removed from the BI Publisher Web services. If you were using the BI Publisher Web services in Release 11.1.1.3 and you upgrade to 11.1.1.5, then you must perform the following to add a Global Policy Attachment (GPA):

Log in to Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control.

In the left pane, click WegLogic Domain, and then click bifoundation_domain.

In the right pane, click the WebLogic Domain menu and select Web Services and then Policy Sets.

41.9.4.1 Scheduler Does Not Support Multibyte Characters When Schema Installed on Microsoft SQL Server

If you are using Microsoft SQL Server as the BI Publisher scheduler database, using multibyte characters in the Schedule Report Job page might result in a garbled character display. To work around this issue, do not use multibyte characters in the Schedule Report Job submission page.

Oracle BI Publisher´s Template Builder for Microsoft Word is not compatible with Microsoft Office Live Add-in. The presence of Microsoft Office Live Add-in might cause errors when attempting to install the Template Builder or other unexpected behavior.

The workaround is to uninstall Microsoft Office Live Add-in.

41.9.8 Oracle BI Publisher Layout Editor Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher layout editor. It includes the following topic:

When viewing a report using a layout that is not set as the Default Layout, and you select Edit Layout from the Report Viewer's action drop-down menu to open the layout in the layout editor, and then you click Return, you might encounter the following issue: The Report Viewer tries to open the report using the default output format (PDF, HTML, and so on) specified for the default layout. This might cause the report to fail with the following error if the default output format for the default layout is not one of the output formats allowed for the selected layout:

The report cannot be rendered because of an error, please contact the administrator. Error Detail oracle.xdo.servlet.data.DataException: Invalid format requested: html

41.9.9 Oracle BI Publisher Data Model Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher data models. It includes the following topics:

41.9.9.1 Data Model Is Not Editable When Created by Upgrade Assistant

A report that is upgraded from Release 10g to 11g will have a report and a data model created by the Upgrade Assistant. The upgraded data model when seen in the data model editor will not show diagram, data structure and the equivalent code for the data structure. Moreover, the developer or administrator will not be able to edit the data structure. This means that the data model will not allow the developer or administrator to use the Release 11g features editable XML View and Business View.

The workaround is as follows:

Open the data model for editing.

Copy the SQL query statement from the data set.

Create a new data set in the same data model. The following warning is displayed:

"Adding this type of Data Set may break layouts that refer to this data model."

Click OK.

Paste the SQL query into the new data set dialog.

Enter a name for the dataset.

Click OK.

Delete the original data set. The following warning is displayed:

"This item is set as main dataset. Do you want to delete this item?"

Click OK.

Change the data structure in XML View to reflect ROWSET/ROW structure of XML.

Save the data model.

41.9.9.2 After Editing a View Object Data Set, the Elements Are Duplicated

In the data model editor if you edit a data set of the type View Object, after you click OK, all the elements in the data set will be duplicated.

To work around this issue, you must delete the data set and recreate it.

41.9.10 Oracle BI Publisher Report Building Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to building reports with Oracle BI Publisher. It includes the following topic:

In the "Creating an RTF Template" chapter, under the topic "Conditional Formatting," and subtopic "Column Formatting," the example contains a syntax error.

In the table that begins on page 74-68 of the PDF version of the book, the second "IF" statement entry (that precedes the entry "20") incorrectly shows the Form Field Entry as <?if@column:/items/@type="PRIVATE"?>

41.10.1.1 Use of NQClient (BI ODBC Client) Utility Is Deprecated

The NQClient (BI ODBC Client) utility was fully deprecated in Release 11g (11.1.1.3) and should not be used. Instead, use the nqcmd utility or one of the many widely available third-party ODBC/JDBC tools to satisfy previous NQClient functionality.

In paint.rpd, aggregated data at different levels is stored in the same fact table, which means that the same physical fact table is mapped to the logical table at different levels. To ensure that only rows from one level are returned, WHERE clause filters such as LEVELX = 'MONTH' or LEVELX = 'YEAR' exist in the logical table sources.

In releases prior to Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3), if two logical table sources for the same logical table were mapped to the same physical table, and both logical table sources were used in a query, and both logical table sources had a WHERE clause filter, then the filter from only one of the logical table sources was applied. The other WHERE clause filter was ignored.

Starting with Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3), in this situation, the WHERE clause filters from both logical table sources are applied to the query. Because of this, when paint.rpd queries select attributes from multiple levels, then the query hits multiple logical table sources, and the WHERE clause filters added to the query contradict one another. For example, the following condition is always false because LEVELX cannot be both MONTH and YEAR at the same time:

T863.LEVELX = 'MONTH' and T863.LEVELX = 'YEAR'

If you use paint.rpd for testing, then use one of the following methods to correct the modeling:

Use physical table aliases to ensure that the same physical table is not mapped to the logical table at different levels.

Disable the higher-level logical table source so that the query hits only the detailed logical table source.

Note that paint.rpd is not optimized for this release of Oracle BI EE and should not be used as a basis for any repositories in production environments. Consider using SampleApp.rpd instead. You can find the full version of SampleApp.rpd at:

41.10.1.3 FIRST and LAST Aggregation Rules Cause Inconsistent Sorting for Time Dimensions

The FIRST and LAST aggregation rules always use the primary level key to determine the sort order of the dimension members. This might cause inconsistent sort order for time dimensions, because the primary level key is used for the sort rather than the chronological key.

To work around this issue, specify the same column used for the chronological key as the primary level key.

41.10.1.4 Oracle OLAP Jars on JavaHost Computer Must Be Updated When Using Oracle OLAP 11.2.x

Currently, Oracle BI EE includes the 11.1.x version of the OLAP API jar file (olap_api.jar). If you are using Oracle OLAP version 11.2.x as a data source for Oracle BI EE, you must update the OLAP API jar file on all computers running the JavaHost process to version 11.2.x.

To update the olap_api.jar file used by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to version 11.2.x:

Back up the current olap_api.jar file used by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition at:

ORACLE_BI_EE_HOME/bifoundation/javahost/lib/obisintegration/aw/11g

Copy the olap_api.jar file from your Oracle Database home at:

ORACLE_DB_HOME/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/olap/api/lib

Paste the copied jar to the Oracle BI EE location:

ORACLE_BI_EE_HOME/bifoundation/javahost/lib/obisintegration/aw/11g

41.10.1.5 Must Use JDBC Connection String When Importing from Oracle OLAP

Because the Administration Tool uses the JavaHost process to connect to Oracle OLAP data sources for metadata import, which uses JDBC to connect rather than OCI, you must provide a fully-qualified JDBC connection string (host:port:sid) for Data Source Name in the Import Wizard in the Administration Tool when importing from Oracle OLAP sources. Ensure that the JavaHost process can connect to the Oracle OLAP data source using this connection string.

After import is complete, you must update the connection pool object in the Physical layer for the Oracle OLAP source to change the Data Source Name to a valid OCI value, either a net service name or a full OCI connect string.

41.10.2 Oracle BI Server Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the Oracle BI Server. It includes the following topic:

Due to an issue in the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) client for the Oracle Database 11g, unexpected Oracle BI Server crashes might occur when the BI Server is running on Microsoft Windows platform and there are a significant number of concurrent users attempting to connect to the Oracle Database 11g.

The workaround is to apply a Windows patch bundle for Oracle Database 11.1.0.7, patch bundle 27 or higher.

41.10.3 Oracle BI Administration Tool Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the Oracle BI Administration Tool. It includes the following topics:

Each version in the MUD location is stored as repository_name.version_number.

In this release of Oracle Business Intelligence, RPD files are now encrypted with a user-specified repository password. As a result, the Administration Tool can only open repository files that have been fully upgraded and encrypted.

To enable the Administration Tool to open versioned MUD repository files and access MUD history, upgrade all repositories in the MUD directory. Upgrade all repository files in the MUD directory with the following naming patterns, where ddd is the version number:

modified subset of repository_name.ddd

repository_name.ddd

To upgrade MUD repositories so that you can access MUD history:

Run bi-init.cmd (or bi-init.sh on UNIX) to launch a command prompt or shell window that is initialized to your Oracle instance. You can find this utility in:

When prompted, enter the 10g administrator password and a new repository encryption password. Do not forget the repository password, because you cannot open the repository without it. To avoid errors, use the same repository password for all repository files in your MUD environment.

Tip: If you have a large number of MUD repositories, then you might want to create a script to automate the MUD repository migration tasks.

When using Oracle OLAP as a data source, the database type is set to Oracle 11g. However, Oracle OLAP data sources might require changes to the default set of database features for Oracle 11g, such as setting ISDESCENDANT_SUPPORTED to YES to enable parent-child hierarchies.

When the set of database features is changed from the default set, RPD consistency warnings occur when running the Consistency Checker. These warnings should be ignored.

41.11 Oracle Business Intelligence System Administration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence system administration. It includes the following topics:

41.11.1 General System Administration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence system administration.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.11.2 Configuration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to configuring Oracle Business Intelligence components (including Answers, Dashboards, Agents, and the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog). It includes the following topic:

41.11.2.1 Removal of DefaultImageType and HardenXSS Elements

In Release 11.1.1.5, the following elements are no longer supported and should be removed from the instanceconfig.xml file:

DefaultImageType element

HardenXSS element

If the instanceconfig.xml file includes the HardenXSS element when a user starts Oracle BI EE, then an error message is displayed. The error log file will state that startup was affected by the inclusion of the HardenXSS element.

The workaround is to remove the HardenXSS element from the instanceconfig.xml file.

41.11.3 Deployment, Availability, and Capacity Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to enterprise deployments of Oracle Business Intelligence where high availability, capacity, and performance are typically a priority.

41.11.5 Oracle BI Scheduler Issues and Workarounds

41.12 Oracle Business Intelligence Integration and API Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products, including the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs. It includes the following topics:

This section describes issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products, including the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs. It includes the following topics:

BI Publisher does not support supplementary characters in object names in the user interface, for example, report name, data model name, layout name, and so on. The data model editor does not support supplementary characters in SQL queries. The scheduler does not support supplementary characters in input fields such as e-mail subject and message fields.

To work around this issue, do not use supplementary characters in the BI Publisher user interface. If your database table and column names already include supplementary characters, you cannot use the data model editor to retrieve the data from these.

You might have log files for Presentation Services, Oracle BI Scheduler, and Cluster Controller that have been translated to languages other than English. You might find that the content of these log files is not displayed correctly in the Diagnostic Log table and in tooltips in Fusion Middleware Control.

To work around this issue, enter the following property for logreader in the component-logs.xml file in the ORACLE_INSTANCE/config directory:

<property name="encoding" value="UTF-8"/>

Add the property in the component-logs.xml file in the following subdirectories: OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent, OracleBISchedulerComponent, and OracleBIClusterControllerComponent.

Error messages invoked while working in the BI Publisher data model editor may display according to the server locale setting rather than the user interface locale setting. This issue has no workaround.

41.13.1.5 Incorrect Layout in Tables and Pivot Tables in PDF Files and PowerPoint Presentations When Locale for BI Server Is Arabic or Hebrew

If the locale for the Oracle BI Server is Arabic or Hebrew, then no matter what the client locale for Presentation Services is, you will notice the following issues with tables and pivot tables in PDF files and PowerPoint presentations:

The printed layout for tables and pivot tables is always Right to Left.

Section 4.6.1, "Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools" of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence, incorrectly lists the following as not supported on Microsoft Windows x64:

"32-bit versions of the Oracle Business Intelligence client tools are installed automatically when you install Oracle Business Intelligence on a computer running a 32- or 64-bit Windows operating system."

The previous statement incorrectly implies that the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer always installs 32-bit versions of the client tools. Rather, 32-bit versions of the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer install 32-bit versions of the client tools, while 64-bit versions of the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer install 64-bit versions of the client tools.

The previous statement incorrectly implies that the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer always installs all of the available client tools. Rather, it installs just two client tools—the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool and Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager. It does not install the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager. Only the Windows version of the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer installs all three client tools.

Therefore, if you want or require the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager, you must install the client tools using the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer, and not the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer.

The Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application allows you to e-mail a link to the BI content you are viewing. When viewing an Answers report or a dashboard page, tap the Email icon to launch an e-mail window; a link to the Answers report or Dashboard is then embedded in the body of the e-mail.

On the iPad, the Email icon appears at the bottom of the Oracle BI Mobile application. On the iPhone, tap the Actions icon to access the Email icon.

This feature works only if you have set up an e-mail account on your iPhone or iPad device.

41.14.5.2 Oracle BI Mobile: Easy Access to Dashboards

When you tap the Catalog icon in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application on the iPad or iPhone, you see two tabs at the top of the screen: a Catalog tab and a Dashboards tab. Tap the Dashboards tab to display a list of top-level dashboards you have access to. This list is identical to the list of dashboards you see when logged into Oracle BI EE with the desktop application.

In the "How Will Prompts Created in Previous Versions Be Upgraded?" topic in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses," the default pixel value specified for the Choice List Width field and for the Set width of all prompts to field is incorrect. The default pixel value is 120, not 250.

In Appendix E, "User Interface Reference," the default pixel value specified for the Choice List Width field in the "New Prompt dialog" topic and for the Set width of all prompts to field in the "Edit Page Settings" dialog is incorrect. The default pixel value is 120, not 250.

41.14.5.5 Error in the "How Will Prompts Created in Previous Versions Be Upgraded?" Topic in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses"

The "How Will Prompts Created in Previous Versions Be Upgraded?" topic in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses" contains an incorrect reference to the Text Field Width field. This topic should instead reference the Choice List Value field. The revised paragraph should read as follows:

The Choice List Value field located in the "New Prompt dialog" is set by default to 120 pixels. Note that this value is different if your Administrator modified the default pixel value in the Oracle BI EE configuration file.

41.14.5.6 Columns from Multiple Subject Areas Included in a Single Query Must Be Compatible

The following additional information is available for the topic "What Are Subject Areas and Columns?" in Chapter 2, "Creating Analyses:"

Typically, when you query a single subject area, all the columns exposed in that subject area are compatible with all the dimensions exposed in the same subject area. However, when you combine columns and dimensions from multiple subject areas, you must ensure that you do not include combinations of columns and dimensions that are incompatible with one another.

For example, a column in one subject area might not be dimensioned by Project. If columns from the Project dimension from another subject area are added to the request along with the columns that are not dimensioned by Project, then the query might fail to return results, or cause the Oracle BI Server error "No fact table exists at the requested level of detail: XXXX."

41.14.5.7 Error in the "Actions that Invoke Operations, Functions or Processes in External Systems" Topic in Chapter 10, "Working with Actions"

The "Actions that Invoke Operations, Functions, or Processes in External Systems" topic in Chapter 10, "Working with Actions" includes a Note referencing the USERSCRIPT.ADFAction function. This Note, which is included in the bullet that describes the Invoke a Browser Script action, is in error. The USERSCRIPT.ADFAction function is not supported in this release.

The definitions of Variance and % Variance in Table E-7, Commonly Used KPI Data Columns in the "Show More Columns dialog" topic in Appendix E, "User Interface Reference" contain an error and need to be corrected (the example variance should be -50,000, not 50,000 and the example % variance should be -7.7%, not 7.7%).

The definitions should read as follows:

Variance: Displays the value by which the KPI's actual value differs from its target value. For example if the actual value for a Net Profit KPI is 600,000 and its target is 650,000, then the variance is -50,000.

% Variance: Displays the percent by which the KPI's actual value differs from its target value. For example if the actual value for a Net Profit KPI is 600,000 and its target is 650,000, then the variance as a percent is -7.7%

41.14.6.1 Important Changes to Essbase Preconfiguration Instructions

Note the following changes to the topic "Setting Up Essbase Data Sources" in Chapter 4, "Importing Metadata and Working with Data Sources" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition:

The Administration Tool requires Essbase client libraries version 11.1.2.x. Do not use other client versions. Although other versions of the Essbase client libraries might work with the Oracle BI Server, the recommended approach for Oracle BI Server connectivity to Essbase is to use the bundled 11.1.2.x client.

By default, Oracle Business Intelligence is configured to use the bundled version of the Essbase client libraries in ORACLE_HOME/clients/epm/Essbase/EssbaseRTC. You do not typically need to make manual changes to opmn.xml on the Oracle BI Server computer for Essbase setup. However, the bi-init.cmd changes described in the topic "Setting Up Essbase Data Sources" are still required.

If you have installed the Administration Tool using the Client install type, you must ensure that the Essbase client is present on the Administration Tool client computer. You must then update bi-init.cmd to include required variable and path information, as described in the topic "Setting Up Essbase Data Sources."

41.14.6.2 Manual opmn.xml Edits Needed to Use Teradata as a Data Source

The following section should have appeared in the topic "Performing Data Source Preconfiguration Tasks" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition:

Setting Up Teradata Data Sources To use Teradata as a data source for Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows systems, you must manually edit opmn.xml on each computer running the Oracle BI Server to include required Teradata variables.

To update opmn.xml to include Teradata variables on Windows:

Open opmn.xml for editing. You can find opmn.xml at:

ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OPMN/opmn/opmn.xml

Locate the ias-component tag for the Oracle BI Server process. For example:

<ias-component id="coreapplication_obis1" inherit-environment="true">

Under the Oracle BI Server ias-component tag, add the required Teradata variables TERA_HOME, TERAGSS_HOME, and TERAICU_HOME, and also update the PATH variable, as shown in the following example. Replace the example values with the installed location for your Teradata client:

If you use the default location when installing the Teradata client, then the PATH variable might exceed the 1024 character limit imposed by Windows. To avoid this issue, install the Teradata client in a directory with a shortened path name (such as C:\TD), or use shortened 8.3 file names (such as "C:\PROGRA~1\Teradata\Client\13.10\ODBCDR~1\Bin" instead of "C:\Program Files\Teradata\Client\13.10\ODBC Driver for Teradata\Bin").

To determine the correct 8.3 file names, run "dir /x" from the appropriate directory. For example:

Repeat these steps on each computer that runs the Oracle BI Server process. If you are running multiple Oracle BI Server instances on the same computer, be sure to update the ias-component tag appropriately for each instance in opmn.xml (for example, ias-component id="coreapplication_obis1", ias-component id="coreapplication_obis2", and so on).

In the section "New Features for Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3)" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, a list of new consistency check warnings is provided. Note the following changes for warnings 39009 and 39059 in Release 11.1.1.5:

The information about the consistency check warning 39009 is valid for Release 11.1.1.3, but does not apply to Release 11.1.1.5. This warning no longer occurs due to underlying changes in the code.

In Release 11.1.1.5, the description for the consistency check warning 39059 should read as follows:

"Even though this fact logical table source has an aggregate grain set in this dimension, no join was found that connects to any logical table source in this dimension (or a potentially invalid join was found).

This means that either no join exists at all, or it does exist but is potentially invalid because it connects a higher-level fact source to a lower-level dimensional source. Such joins are potentially invalid because if followed, they might lead to double counting in query answers.

For example, consider Select year, yearlySales. Even if a join exists between monthTable and yearlySales table on yearId, it should not be used because such a join would overstate the results by a factor of 12 (the number of months in each year).

If you get a 39059 warning after upgrade, verify that the join is as intended and does not result in incorrect double counting. If the join is as intended, then ignore the 39059 warning."

41.14.6.4 Other Changes to List of New Consistency Check Warnings

In the section "New Features for Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3)," a list of new consistency check warnings is provided. Note the following changes to this list. These changes apply to Release 11.1.1.3 and Release 11.1.1.5:

The consistency check warning 39055 should appear in its own row in the table, with the following description:

"This warning indicates that there is a physical join between the given fact and dimension sources, but there is not a corresponding logical join between the fact table and the dimension table."

The description for consistency check errors 38012 and 38001 should read as follows:

"Logical columns that are not mapped to any logical table source are reported as consistency errors, because the logical table source mappings are invalid and would cause queries to fail.

Both of the given validation rules are related to the same issue."

The description for consistency check warning 39003 should read as follows:

"This warning indicates that the given column is only mapped to logical table sources that are disabled. The warning brings this issue to the repository developer's attention in case the default behavior is not desired."

41.14.6.5 Select the Virtual Private Database Option when Authenticating Against Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management Using a Shared Token

This additional information applies when you authenticate against Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data sources using a shared token. After selecting SSO using CSS Token in the data source connection pool in the Oracle BI repository, you should also select the Virtual Private Database option in the corresponding database object to protect cache entries.

41.14.6.6 Manually Updating the Master MUD Repository

During the course of Oracle BI repository development in a Multiuser Development (MUD) environment, it might be necessary to make manual changes to the master repository. Because of the highly controlled nature of the MUD process, you need to be careful when performing any manual steps because there is accounting information stored in the MUD history log (.mhl) file. To manually work on the master repository, you must work on the repository in a separate directory from your MUD directory. Then, you must replace both the master RPD and the latest versioned repository in the MUD directory.

For example, follow these steps to manually update a repository named master.rpd:

Copy the master repository (master.rpd) out of the MUD directory into a local directory.

Use the Oracle BI Administration Tool to make the changes necessary to the local copy of the master repository (master.rpd).

When manual edits are complete, copy master.rpd to the MUD directory as master.rpd. For example:

copy c:\local\master.rpd c:\mud\master.rpd

In the MUD directory, identify the latest repository with a version number. For example, master.7011.

Copy master.rpd to the MUD directory and overwrite the latest versioned repository. For example:

If you install the Administration Tool using the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer, you must perform additional configuration before you can perform offline imports from Oracle OLAP or Hyperion Financial Management data sources. To import from either of these data sources in offline mode, the Administration Tool must point to the location of a running JavaHost.

Follow these steps to point the Administration Tool at a running JavaHost:

Close the Administration Tool, if it is open.

On the same computer as the Administration Tool, open the local NQSConfig.INI file in a text editor. You can find this file at:

ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obisn

Locate the JAVAHOST_HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESSES parameter, near the bottom of the file. Update this parameter to point to a running JavaHost, using a fully-qualified host name or IP address and port number. For example:

JAVAHOST_HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESSES = "myhost.example.com:9810"

Note that in a full (non-client) Oracle Business Intelligence installation, you cannot manually edit this setting because it is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control.

If you install the Administration Tool using the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer, you must install the Oracle Database Client on the Administration Tool computer before you can import from Oracle Database or Oracle OLAP sources. Use either the Administrator or Runtime client install option.

If you are running a 32-bit Administration Tool, you must install the 32-bit Oracle Database Client. If you are running a 64-bit Administration Tool, you must install the 64-bit Oracle Database Client.

After installing the Oracle Database Client, create an environment variable called ORACLE_HOME and set it to the Oracle home for the Oracle Database Client. Then, create an environment variable called TNS_ADMIN and set it to the location of the TNSNAMES.ORA file (ORACLE_HOME\network\admin).

During Oracle BI Server start-up, if an initialization block fails for a particular connection pool, no more initialization blocks using that connection pool are processed. Instead, the connection pool is blacklisted and subsequent initialization blocks for that connection pool are skipped. This behavior ensures that the Oracle BI Server starts in a timely manner, even when a connection pool has a large number of associated initialization blocks or variables.

If this occurs, a message similar to the following appears in the server log:

If you see this error, check the initialization blocks for the given connection pool to ensure that they are correct.

41.14.6.10 Merge Local Changes Step Does Not Lock the Master Repository

In Release 11.1.1.5, when working in a multiuser development environment, the master repository is not locked when you merge local changes. Instead, the master repository is locked during the Publish to Network step. This change reduces the total time that the master repository is locked to avoid lock contention issues.

With this change, the publish step now checks that no other developer published changes to the master between the time you merged local changes and the time you published to network. If the MUD logic discovers that another repository developer published to the network in this time period, the system will automatically redo the merge with the master. To redo the merge, the system must roll back to the RPD version you used for the Merge Local Changes step, and will then merge it with the new master.

Because of this change, you must always merge all local changes before publishing to the network. Otherwise, you might lose any changes you made between merge and publish if a rollback becomes necessary for a merge redo.

41.14.7.1 Error for Configuring the Data Source for the Full-Text Catalog Search

Section 17.11.4.4 describes how to configure the data source for the full-text catalog search. Step 5 of that procedure describes how to specify the Display URL Prefix. The step includes an incorrect line for Secure Enterprise Search 11.2.1 or later. The line should read as follows:

41.14.8.1 SASchInvoke Always Prompts for the Password in 11.1.1.5

Section 5.5.1 "Using SASchInvoke When BI Scheduler is SSL-Enabled" in revision E10543-03 describes using the SASchInvoke command to invoke the BI Scheduler when SSL is enabled. A caution paragraph suggested that a password prompt appears when you run the command under SSL, but a password prompt appears regardless of SSL-enablement. The caution was confusing and has been removed for the E10543-04 revision.

41.14.8.2 Setup Multiple Authentication Providers

Chapter 3 did not explain how to configure multiple authentication providers, so a new section 3.2.3.3 "Configuring BI with Multiple Authentication Providers" was created for revision E10543-03. Chapter 5 did not explain how to set up SSL when multiple authenticators are configured, so a new section 5.6.6, "Configuring SSL When Using Multiple Authenticators" was created for revision E10543-04.

The following sentence in the "Passing Business Intelligence Content with the Oracle BI EE Contextual Event Action" topic is incorrect: "At design time, the analysis designer determines which column should contain the Oracle BI EE contextual event action, adds an Invoke a Browser Script action type to the column, and browses for and selects USERSCRIPT.ADFAction."

Instead, this sentence should read: "At design time, the analysis designer determines which column should contain the Oracle BI EE contextual event action and from the New Action Link menu, selects ADF Contextual Event."

The "Passing Business Intelligence Content with the Oracle BI EE Contextual Event Action" topic should also state that the Administer must modify Oracle BI EE's instanceconfig.xml file so that the ADF Contextual Event option displays in the New Action Link menu within Presentation Services. To enable the action type to display in the New Action Link menu, the Administrator must add the ActionLinks setting to the <ServerInstance> tag as follows: